Frustrated Smith "second in line"

Bradley Smith’s frustration at not having his contract signed for 2016 has been bubbling over all weekend in Indianapolis with the Tech3 rider making barbed comments in the press conference about the situation. With Pol Espargaro having been resigned by Yamaha Smith’s frustration is due to the fact that despite outperforming the Spaniard he feels “second in line” to Espargaro.

“It is frustrating,” said Smith about the situation. “But it’s something that I just have to accept, and I have to deal with, unfortunately. You judge things by people’s actions, and today or yesterday, or whenever the announcement was, obviously it is a clear action and indication of their focus point. I just have to accept that and continue to do the best I can and work with my side of the team.

“Like I said, with Tech 3 themselves, I have absolutely no problem at all, they’re giving me 100% support all the time. Inside my garage, I couldn’t ask for a better bunch of guys. At the end of the day, Hervé has been 100% behind me for a very long time now. It’s just that with the manufacture in general, it’s something I’m a little bit disappointed with.”

When asked how close he was to signing a new contract Smith said that he would have a meeting with Tech3 and Yamaha last night [Friday] and he hoped it would shed light on the situation.

” I still haven’t had any meetings. I know my manager had a meeting over the concerns that I had last night [Thursday], but actually, me personally, nothing. I plan to have a little bit of a sit down and talk about a few things tonight [Friday], but at the end of the day, I can’t see things being announced this weekend. We’re not far enough down the line to be doing that type of thing. At the end of the day, it’s clear the intentions of Yamaha, by signing Pol and announcing it straight away. But I just have to play the waiting game and I’m obviously second in line at the minute.”